Recent advances in air bottle conveyors have enabled bottles and other flanged articles to be conveyed at line speeds of over 1100 bpm. Increased line speed capabilities can aggravate speed mismatch problems between the line and various pieces of handling equipment which often hamper conveyor plant efficiency and throughput. For example, overall plant throughput is generally limited by the throughput on the slowest piece of equipment. Increases in speed of washers, fillers or other pieces of equipment highlight the low throughput on slow or breakdown-prone pieces of equipment. Speed mismatches can also cause jamming and damage of articles due to accumulation at slower throughput pieces of equipment. Increased line speeds also create increased line pressure, subjecting bottles to greater downstream forces.
Speed mismatches are often accommodated by branching lines to or joining lines from slower pieces of plant equipment. However, the increased speed and forces may cause unacceptable levels of damage to bottles branched from one conveyor to another at the relatively angular intersections used in prior art devices.
Prior art bottle diverting systems, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,822,214 (Aidlin), 4,938,636 (Aidlin) and 4,944,635 (Carlier), include two or more linear bottle conveying portions which meet in angular intersections. A wedge-shaped diverter blade is positioned at each intersection to divert bottles along one path and to block the other or unintended path. The bottle path may be switched by rotating the diverter blade.
With prior art systems, bottles are diverted from one conveyor to another by following one linear path to the angular intersection, striking and ricocheting off of the diverter blade or a side of the other linear path, and then following the other linear path away from the intersection. Although sufficient for prior bottle line speeds, these angular intersections and diverter blades disadvantageously may cause damage to bottles moving along conveyor lines at speeds of up to 1100 bpm and higher. Due to their dual functioning as accumulating stops, the diverter blades in prior art devices are subjected to increased stresses which may degrade reliability and accelerate wear.